Lauren Stevens
Tampere, Finland

I discovered that I had achieved a Class Two, Division One 2.1 Bachelor's degree in International Development Studies with Spanish when I received my assessment results on 10th July 2015. I'll graduate on 5th November 2...

On 18th April 2015 I did a colour run with Run or Dye at Platt Fields Park in Manchester. My friend Jen and I had tried to train for it, but hadn't been very successful. Our team name was 'Those four sweetcheeks' because...

Maria and I arrived in Helsinki on 3rd April 2015. The cruise on M/S Baltic Queen to Tallinn, Estonia, left at 18:00 on 5th April. I was surprised that nobody asked to see my passport, but Maria explained that this was because both ...

Maria and I took the Onnibus from Jyväskylä and arrived in Helsinki at around 09:00 am on 27th September 2014. We had a quick breakfast in a nearby shopping centre and then walked to Radisson Blu Seaside Hotel, where we le...

On 15th August 2014 I was on holiday with my friend Fatima in Santorini, a Greek island (See 'Visit Greek islands'). I booked a scuba dive with the Mediterranean Dive Club for 15:30 - 17:30, which I was really nervous about, espe...

On 11th August we arrived at Santorini port at 12:00 on a delayed SeaJets ferry (See 'Visit Athens, Greece'), so we missed our 22:30 hotel transfer to Irineos Studios in Perissa, in the east of the Island. We calle...

On 6th August 2014 at 04:30 I woke up and at 05:13 I left the house to catch 05:40 Star Inn bus to arrive at 05:57 at Reading Station. At 06:22 I caught the train which arrived in London Paddington at 07:10 and I took the underground to ...

I caught the 6:30 bus from Reading Calcot on 18/07/2014, which was due to arrive in London Victoria at 8:00. However, it arrived about 20 minutes late. I then checked in at Victoria and boarded the 10:00 bus due to arrive in Paris at 18:...

On Tuesday 17th June, after spending the previous day in Marrakech, my friend Jess and I got up at 7:00 because our desert guide, Abdul, was supposed to be collecting us at 7:30. As he was bit late I was worried he wouldn't turn...

I worked in an English Language Assistant at a secondary school in Melilla, a Spanish colony on the north coast of Africa for 8 months for the third year of my degree in International Development Studies and Spanish. Technically I w...

When I went to Finland on 17th December 2012 I stayed in Kylpylähotelli Rantasipi Eden spa in Nokia. I tried an ordinary 80 degree electric sauna and found it strange because everybody is naked and it is&nbs...

I met Maria and Julia and some other Finns at the University of Chester in 2011. It was my first year at university and their ERASMUS year. Through them I learnt about Finnish culture and I wanted to experience it myself, so I first...

Me and Maria had be planning to do this for a while. We had an invitation to a house party and we decided we would make skittles vodka in preparation for this on 19th August 2012. We bought sour skittles and separated the pink and p...

I went to Alton Towers on 7th August 2012 and decided I wanted to keep my hair dry on the water rides, so I took a shower cap with me. The shower cap was lime green with a duck beak and a pair of eyes on the front. I wore the shower...

Louise, Maria and Nicola and I decided to attempt to take a trolley through a McDonald's Drive Thru on 15th July 2012. We tried one lane, but the staff didn't respond through the intercom, so we tried the other and they...

Maria randomly bought it for me on 6th July 2012 when we were in Chester because she knew I wanted to try it. It tasted really sweet but towards the end it was a bit too sickly. I would eat another one, though!

I went jogging with Maria at night on 5th June 2012 and after a while we came across a golf course. It was sunset and the place looked really beautiful. We noticed a hill in the middle of the golf course (too big to be part of the g...

I went to Scotland 11th-15h April 2012 with Maria, Julia and Linda. Before we went I joked (with a very slight element of seriousness) that we should take our bikinis and swim in Loch Ness. We had a look on Youtube and actually foun...

I visited Maria in Germany for 2 weeks in September 2011. One night I had a dream in which there was both German and English people. I spoke to the English people in English and to the Germans in German, therefore I had a bilingual dream...

I was in Air Cadets and I was offered to opportunity to learn to fly a plane at RAF Benson on 28th February 2009. I was quite nervous after running through how to use a parachute effectively and was expecting the worst. However, the expe...